09 February, 2018

REVIEW: THE BLOODY RED BARON by Kim Newman


Title: The Bloody Red Baron
Author:  Kim Newman
Series: Anno Dracula
Genres: Vampires, Horror, Historical fiction
Publisher: Titan Books
Release: April 10th 2012
Source: Paperback
Pages: 587

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BLURB:

WAR IS HELL...

It is 1918 and Graf von Dracula is commander-in-chief of the armies of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The War of the Great Powers in Europe is also a war between the living and the undead. Caught up in the conflict, Charles Beauregard, an old enemy of Dracula, his protegé Edwin Winthrop, and intrepid vampire reporter Kate Reed go head-to-head with the lethal vampire flying machine that is the Bloody Red Baron... In the brand-new novella Vampire Romance, Geneviève Dieudonné, newly returned to England, infiltrates a singular vampire gathering in the service of the Diogenes Club.

A brand-new edition, with additional novella, of the critically acclaimed, bestselling sequel to Anno Dracula. Written by popular novelist and movie critic Kim Newman, The Bloody Red Baron takes the story into the 20th century.

 

EXPECTATIONS: Oh how I awaited this book. I loved the first in the series, so my expectations were fairly high, if I'm honest. Very lucky me - the book did not disappoint. 

THE WORLD: This is pretty much the world of the World War I, nations ravaged by what they call The War of Great Powers, undead versus the living, for it is exactly what's happening. Graf von Dracula has taken it upon himself to be a warlord once again, this time - of the superior race, the vampire race. While humans train their puny pilots to fly high and well, all it takes for him and his kind, and I do stress - HIS kind, for it is his bloodline that can shape-shift this way the best - is to turn into giant bats. Imagine German air force with dragon-like creatures in the land of eternal night. And all that is for no other but Edgar Allan Poe himself to describe and record, for it is he who is chosen to write the biography of the most infamous Dracula's "pilot", known best as the Bloody Red Baron. 

CHARACTERS: Edgar Allan Poe is the most fascinating, the most pleasant to read character here. He watches, and he describes, but not the way Kim Newman would do, no. This is easy to read, easy to understand and follow. I wish the whole book was written from his point of view. Instead, as seems to be the case, we get snippits from our regular vampire girls, the self-proclaimed, with a lot of irony and sarcasm, Dracula's Brides: Penelope Churchward, Genevive Dieudonne, and Kate Reed. Her - in the front lines, recording what she can, reporting what she can. Charles Beauregard re-appears too, this time he's preparing a young man to be his protege.

ROMANCE: Kate has a great heart, full of love she's ready to give. Sadly the men she wishes to give it to - tend to either die, or be unworthy of love. The rest of the romance is spared for Charles, and there's not so much of it in this one.

GOOD: Poe was a very impressive character, I loved his attention to details that wasn't burdening me, reader. He and the young man called Bloody Red Baron were what made it worth getting through this book. That, and the vampire killing systems, e.g. since silver is expensive, only ever 10th bullet in machine guns was silver. So nine regulars, and tenth to finish them off. Oh, and the ending, the ending! I was on the edge of my seat! It was so very intense, and surprising.

BAD: And getting through this book was not easy to begin with. Yet again, author really, really cared about the setting, and made sure you imagine the scene, before starting with the plot.

OVERALL: This one was much better than the last, so all in all, a great Dracula and a great vampire book! Sadly they're not stand-alone kind.

What do you think about The Bloody Red Baron?

 

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